Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/180

 2i:

��l^

��166

��irrsTOHY OF RICHLAND COUNTY

��residents in the vieinit}- as the higliest land in the county and State. It is, liowever, by the barometer, only 240 feet above Mansfield, or 832 feet altove the lake, while two and a half miles further east the surface rises by a more gentle inclination 80 feet higher.

Soil. — The soil over the greater part of Rich- land County rests upon the unmodified drift clays, and takes its general character from them. It contains a large quantity of lime, derived mainly from the corniferous limestone, frag- ments of which are eAerywhere mingled with the drift. The clay in the soil is also modified and tempered by the deliris of the local rocks, which is largely mingled with the drift, and is mostly siliceous. This character, combined with a high elevation and thorough surface drain- age, furnishes a soil which renders the name of the county appropriate, and secures a great variety of agricultural products.

While all parts of the count}' are well adapted to grazing, the land is especially fitted for the growth of wheat and other cereals, and to the production of fruit. The profusion of rock fragments in the drift renders the soil pervious to water, and prevents washing, even in the steepest hills.

In the southeastern part of the count}' the higher hills are, in places, capped with a coarse ferruginous conglomerate, and are so covered with its debris as not to be susceptilile of til- lage. Nature has designated a use to which these sand-rock hills should be appropriated, as they are generally co^-ered with a dense sec- ond growth of chestnut. This timlier prefers a soil filled with fragments of sand-rock, and the second growth is almost as valuable as red cedar for fence posts and other similar purposes. If upon all similar rocky hills the inferior kinds of timber and the useless undergrowth were cut awa}', and the growth of the chestnut en- couraged, these now worthless hilltops would yield an annual harvest scarcel}' less valualjle than that of the most fertile valle^•s. n the

��north side of the divide, the slopes of the hills are covered by the debris of the local rocks, and the soil is much less productive.

Snrfacf Dejiosif^i. — The greater part of the county is covered by a thick deposit of unmotli- fied bowlder clay, which, in many of the north- ern townships, conceals from view all the under- lying rocks. Except upon the mai-gins of the streams, this bowlder clay, which is often very thick, is wholly unstratified. The clay near the surface is 3'ellow; at the bottom, l)lue. Granitic bowlders and pebbles, and fragments of the local, rocks are very abundant through the whole mass. In some places the line between the yellow and blue clay is sharpl}' defined, but, aside from the diflf'erence in color, there is no distinction, ex- cept that the yellow is fissured by vertical, hor- izontal and oblique seams, through which the water readily percolates, while the blue is gen- erally impervious to it. On this account, springs frequently mark the junction of these clays. Many of them, however, which afforded an abundant supply of water when the country was first settled, have dried up. This is no in- dication of a diminished rainfall, but may be explained partly by the more rapid surface drainage, resulting from the removal of the forest, and parti}- by the deeper oxidization of the bowlder cla}', which renders it porous, and depresses the junction between the yellow and blue clays, so as to change the line of drainage, or, from the deeper fissures of the clay, the water-bearing horizon has been car- ried below the outlets of the old springs.

The hard granitic and metamorphic bowlders and pebbles of this drift are well worn, and often striated with great uniformity along their greatest diameter. On the contrary, the soft and friable debris of the local rocks on the top of the hills is neither water-worn nor striated. The fragments are often as angular as if just broken up in a quarry. Away from the water- courses the surface of the land is undulating, consisting of irregular j-idges with frequent

��TRT

�� �